My Presidential Years

by Ramaswamy Venkataraman

Book by Venkataraman, Ramaswamy

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Gopal Vijayaraghavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading “My Presidential Years” by Late R. Venkataraman one is reminded of the period of turbulence during the years from 1987 to 1992 in India and the world. A super power was breaking up and splitting into many nations . Middle East was in ferment and equations therein were changing. In India, Late Rajiv Gandhi was battling the problem of violence in Punjab and Assam as the shadow of ill fated Bofors gun deal loomed over his political career. His ill advised operation of sending peace keeping forces to Sri Lanka was to result in his tragic assassination in 1991. A historic mandate for Congress in eighth Lok Sabha was lost in 1989 with a split verdict resulting in fall of two Governments in a span of thirty months and mid-term elections in 1990. Forces of Mandal and Kamandal, let loose by Late V.P. Singh and BJP, were tearing the social fabric of the country and suddenly peace in Kashmir was also shattered. The Indian economy, under an Oil shock of middle east crisis and internal political instability, was tottering. It was during that difficult period Shri Venkataraman, well versed in constitutional practices and known for his methodical functioning, hard work, simplicity and non partisan approach, came to occupy the post of President in India. In the book Late Venkataraman had written only about the period of his Presidential years i.e. his functioning as the President of India.
Shri Venkataraman was of the view that the office of the President is like an emergency light. “In comes on automatically when there is a crisis and goes off automatically when the crisis passes.” This emergency light had to be on mode on many occasions after the Ninth Lok Sabah produced a verdict wherein no political formation/alliance got a working majority. Due to his wide knowledge of the constitutional practice Late Venkataraman’s handling of such crises was a matter of appreciation by even his critics. But given the historical context of his presidential years and his vast administrative experience, Late Vankataraman’s book is disappointing as mostly it is a narration of the visits of political leaders of the world to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the visit of the President in India and other countries during his tenure. No doubt Late Venkataraman had touched all the crises of the period, but the insight of a person who had a long administrative experience in the running of UN bodies as well as the country, having functioned as Defence Mnister and Finance Minister, is sadly lacking in the book. There are many places wherein one gets an impression that the late President had failed to see that many ideals of Indian policy like non aligned movements and the socialist model of economy would be outdated in a fast changing environment. True Late President was only mouthing the worn out slogans of official establishment as per constitutional practice but still a deeper insight into the currents of tumultuous changes occurring in the world would have made the book more interesting. But since late Venkataraman was a President who went by the book, he has stuck to the safe course of writing a non controversial book wherein no egos are hurt and no idols are broken. Thus, the book remains an official document of the inner working of the Head of State of the biggest democracy in the world and to that limited extent would be useful for future historians.